Fighting a Good Fight?

Meghan Jessiman, Swerve11.02.2012

The Unseen Side of MMA. Mixed martial arts is infamous for its barbaric formula of beer, boobs and blood. But the sport also demands supreme athleticism and inner discipline from its warriors.Todd Korol
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Aaron Gallant, sparring with coach and club members at his gym, MMA University Calgary.Todd Korol
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A transplanted Prince George, B.C. boy, Aaron Gallant’s nom de guerre is “Gorilla.” The 27-year-old has a quiet, almost Zen-like aspect to his personality, and he works in the mental-health field with high-risk, developmentally challenged individuals. He credits his coaches and his gym, MMA University Calgary for his success.Todd Korol
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Aaron Gallant, sparring with club members at his gym, MMA University Calgary.Todd Korol
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Watching Ryan Hunter spar with his muay thai coach, Paul Sukys, is “scary.” But sit down to chat with him and he’s unassuming, even soft-spoken.Todd Korol
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Ryan Hunter's gloves and "Sweet Dreams" mouthguard. Says Hunter: “When I’m walking out into the ring, my hearing goes, I get tunnel vision and my body just knows what is about to happen.”Todd Korol
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Ryan Hunter taping hands before his workout.Todd Korol
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Christopher Campbell loves the mental discipline and extreme training that comes with MMA, but he takes issue with some aspects of the sport: “I just can’t get my head around being looked at as a piece of meat beating on another piece of meat,” he says.Todd Korol
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Christopher Campbell working out at his gym, 2110 Fitness, which he is co-owns.Todd Korol
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For most people, the mention of MMA evokes one of three reactions: there are those who shake their heads in disgust; those who pump their fists and grunt in enthusiastic solidarity; and, finally, those who stare quizzically, tilt their heads and ask, “Is that that UFC thing?” Less than 20 years ago, the sport of mixed martial arts wasn’t even a blip on the North American pop-culture radar. In just over a decade, though, the Nevada-based professional MMA organization, Ultimate Fighting Championship, has grown into a multi-billion-dollar business with fights taking place around the globe and televised on pay-per-view and cable.

For the uninitiated, the first UFC event happened in 1993 in Denver, Colo. and was designed to determine the most effective martial-arts discipline by matching up fighters who were masters in boxing, Brazilian jujitsu, taekwondo, wrestling, muay thai and karate. In subsequent competitions, the fighters began adopting effective techniques from the different disciplines which, over time, developed into the MMA style we now see—a seamless blend of jujitsu, wrestling holds and muay thai kickboxing. For those who haven’t witnessed a match, two competitors enter a caged fighting platform and prepare to battle for 15 minutes (five five-minute rounds for a UFC title fight) or until one of them is knocked out or submits, whichever comes first.

For an outsider, it’s often difficult to see past the throngs of tattooed, testosterone-high fans, the overly made-up and under-dressed ring girls and the kill-or-be-killed spectacle of the now heavily hyped UFC, to recognize that these fighters are serious athletes, training upwards of three hours a day (on top of their regular life commitments) for eight weeks for a mere 15 minutes of actual combat. For those who make it to the top, mixed martial arts is an art form to which they dedicate their lives. They’re not only attempting to master the mix of fighting disciplines, but also to master themselves and behave accordingly in life outside the cage. It’s a stark contrast to the shiny promotional packaging and machismo of the televised main MMA events. UFC president Dana White, originally from Manchester, Conn., has created the closest thing to a blood sport modern society has known, and, furthermore, he’s figured out how to capitalize on the intrinsic human desire (though certainly more natural to those with an X chromosome) to watch other people fight to the finish. It’s a glamorized version of the gladiators of ancient Rome. With the seemingly unbeatable formula of beer, boobs and blood, it’s easy to understand why there is so much disapproving head-shaking at the mention of MMA (though mostly from the fairer sex). It’s barbaric in all the most appealing/appalling ways.

Or at least that’s the picture of the sport that the UFC is presenting. Here in Calgary, and likely in towns and cities around the world, there is another side to the mixed martial arts story. This tale is not about humans stepping into a cage for the sole purpose of destroying one another, but rather one about athletes striving to push beyond their physical limits to be the very best in their field. To be a champion. For local boys Aaron Gallant, Christopher Campbell, Ryan Hunter and many others like them, mixed martial arts is not about “fighting to the death,” or some reasonable television-friendly facsimile; it’s their way of fighting to live their best life. It’s easy to assume that for someone to embrace the idea of stepping into a cage knowing that once they are in there they will either kick the crap out of someone or have it kicked out of them, they must be somewhat damaged—or at least have some sort of anger-management issue. While it is true that those drawn to this sport do seem to have an abundance of testosterone coursing through their veins and, in more than a few cases, didn’t grow up cloistered behind a white-picket fence, you’d be surprised at the level of emotional intelligence and sensitivity many of these men—and it is overwhelmingly men who participate in MMA—demonstrate off the mat.

Take 27-year-old Aaron (Gorilla) Gallant, a transplant from Prince George, B.C. Gallant has a degree in sociology with a specialty in mental health, and works one on one with high-risk, developmentally disabled people to help them improve their quality of life. Essentially, he acts as a chaperone, mentor and, when need be, disciplinarian, spending his days with a single client, working to shift his view of the world and the way he chooses to engage in it. It’s a job that regularly puts Gallant in situations many would fear, as clients can behave erratically and unpredictably, but it’s a career that Gallant feels blessed to have. “For a long time I wasn’t used to the mental stresses that come along with my line of work. It took me some time to understand that I was there to make a difference, but I wasn’t there to change this person,” he explains. “It’s about being respectful of everything these people already have in their life, and then helping them with the decisions they make. I open them up to a different way of thinking, removing a lot of the negativity and replacing it with positivity and teaching them to think like that on their own.” It’s a job that requires boundless patience, compassion and empathy. Yes, being able to physically defend himself if need be is an asset, but it’s not a role that an aggressive hothead could perform. In truth, it’s one that requires a person with a unique outlook on life, and it suits Gallant’s philosophical, almost Zen-like personality to a tee.

Even his perspective on fighting goes far beyond the typical explanation: “A lot of guys will come into MMA and do a few fights, get caught up in the lifestyle, burn out and that’s the end of it. It comes along with any sport that blew up in popularity like this one did,” Gallant says. “That’s why you have to have the upmost respect for those individuals that can make an enduring career out of it. Stars like Georges St Pierre and Anderson Silva are few and far between, though. They have a warrior spirit and an awareness of the mind-body connection that it takes to be a champion.”

Watching Gallant in action against Dia Grant of Calgary on Sept. 7 at the Hard Knocks No. 27 event at the Foothills Soccer Centre, I saw that he, too, possesses champion potential. Going into the fight, online polls gave Grant a 94 per cent chance of taking the match based on his victories in his previous three matchups. But in mixed martial arts the odds don’t mean much. Gallant’s competitor wasn’t a “soup can”—what fighters wryly call an opponent who stands there and essentially gets crushed—but Grant looked slow and lacklustre in comparison to Gallant’s intensity. Ten seconds into the second round, Gallant delivered a knockout elbow to Grant’s head. It was a definitive win, one that Gallant credits to his home gym, MMA University Calgary in the city’s northeast, and his extensive support team: Steve Gronick (strength and conditioning coach), Mike Dunn (wrestling), Altemar Costa (Brazilian jujitsu), Orestes Betran (muay thai) and, most notably, Marnie Johnston, his “success” coach. “It looks like it’s just the work of one guy out there, but my successes are the result of a massive team effort,” Gallant says. “This is especially true when it comes to the mental side of things. The work I do with Marnie in the office is just as important, if not more so, than the hours of sparring and weights.”

Johnston, a certified life-skills coach, works out of a multidisciplinary training facility called Mission Fitness. Gallant may soon be kicking himself for revealing his secret weapon, but he credits Johnston’s biofeedback and “belief re-patterning” techniques for taking his skills from good to great. She works with all types of athletes to enhance their performance by re-training their minds and bodies to return to a “parasympathetic state,” in which the nervous system allows the body to recuperate and return to homeostasis when faced with stressors. When it comes to mixed martial arts, she says this type of mental training is a natural fit because it teaches the fighters how to stay calm under fire. “With fighters, I work a lot around focus, clarity and self-belief,” Johnston says. “When someone gets hit it naturally throws them off their game, but we train to keep them focused and present when that happens. It’s only one piece of the puzzle, but what we do in here supports their physical instincts and makes them stronger.”

If you thought golf was a mental game, imagine trying to keep your composure while being kicked in the head or put in a chokehold by 200 pounds of pure muscle. Oh, and instead of quiet greens and fairways, imagine being surrounded by screaming fans, bright lights and flashing cameras. For a fighter to be able to block out everything that’s happening around him—even what’s happening to him physically—and plan his next attack is the ultimate asset. It is this mental advantage that makes the difference between an amateur and an Ultimate Fighting Champion. The best MMA fighters, like 30-year-old Revelstoke, B.C. native Ryan (Big Evil) Hunter, realize this early on. “I read a book recently that explained how our bodies sometimes shut off certain senses to heighten others,” Hunter says as he sits on the mats, dripping with sweat from a recent sparring session at Independent MMA, his primary training facility in southeast Calgary. “For me, when I’m walking out into the ring, my hearing goes, I get tunnel vision and my body just knows what is about to happen.” Hunter believes that the loss of certain senses amplifies the reflexes and fast-twitch muscle fibres he needs once he’s in the ring.

For every physical opponent these fighters face in the cage, however, there is a handful of inner demons they must duke it out with before the bell even rings. “It’s a self battle of controlling your adrenalin and emotion so you don’t get that adrenalin dump and lose before you even begin,” Hunter explains. “You just try to breathe, keep calm, listen to what your coaches are telling you and when it’s time to flip the switch, you do.” “Throwing the switch” is a reference that comes up frequently when these guys discuss their fighting experiences and, considering the juxtaposition that exists between their lives inside and outside the cage, it makes perfect sense that they would need an on/off switch for fight mode.

At six-foot-two and 240 pounds, Hunter is physically intimidating. Pair that with the Mack-truck force of his punches and the astonishing speed he possesses for someone of his size, and you can understand why he is considered a serious contender. Watching Hunter spar is a study in the on/off switch; when his game face is on, the man is scary. As soon as the session breaks, though, it’s all jovial ribbing and smiles with his compatriots. Sit down to chat with him and he’s unassuming, even soft-spoken; read through his Twitter feed and he’s a gushing, hopeless romantic. In other words, Hunter is a guy in touch with a full range of emotions and he’s learned to use them to his advantage in the cage. So what’s the appeal of such a violent activity to someone who seems so well-adjusted? According to Hunter, everyone is chasing an adrenalin rush in some form or another. Instead of jumping out of a plane or off a diving platform, he does this. “Fighting is the purest, most raw rush anyone can ever experience in life,” he says. “You are basically going into battle, knowing that you are going into battle; it’s not coming at you from the side. You have trained for months knowing that you are about to face off against someone that is looking to hurt you as much as you are looking to hurt them. It’s nothing personal, but it’s a goal that you have both set your sights on, and only one of you can be victorious.” In this sense, MMA is as much a battle of wills as it is one of skill and strength. In the end, the winner is the one who wanted it more and literally fought for the title, the belt, the money, the glory—whatever the stakes were for a given event.

But when it comes to making a career out of mixed martial arts in Calgary, or even in Canada, there are a few major glitches that stand in a local fighter’s way, no matter how much skill or determination he possesses. “We have all these great training facilities in town, and a plethora of coaching talent, but because no one is willing to work together, the competition for gyms to survive is fierce,” explains Christopher Campbell, co-owner of 2110 Fitness and Hunter’s strength-and-conditioning coach. “Our talent gets stunted in terms of growth because they obviously are loyal to the places they train and they end up sparring with inferior partners and training up new fighters instead of working on their own skills.”

Add to these limitations the simple fact that, compared to an American city of similar size, there aren’t very many fight cards to join in Calgary. So, while it’s a rare local fighter who can acquire the 10-wins-and-no-losses record necessary to be considered for a UFC-level event, Hunter is on his way to doing just that. Tonight (Nov. 2), he will be facing off against Vancouver’s Paul Cheng during the main event of AFC (Aggression Fighting Championship) 12: Domination at the Telus Convention Centre. If he wins the fight, Campbell believes Hunter will take a definitive step in his journey toward becoming a professional fighter. With a current record of three wins and zero losses, there’s a lot of pressure on Hunter to stand and deliver and assert himself as one to watch in circles beyond Calgary. “This is going to be a fight where we will finally be able to see the breadth of Ryan’s skill,” says Campbell. “He is one of the scariest all-around fighters I have personally ever seen, but all his previous matches have been finished too fast to really show what he can do.”

In addition to running his gym and working as a personal trainer, Campbell is also a fighter. The 30-year-old turned to mixed martial arts after being diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder nine years ago, and discovering that the adrenalin and endorphins unleashed by this type of training helped to level his mood and break thought patterns like nothing else could. Though he loves the sport and the positive benefits it brings to his life, Campbell takes issue with the whole MMA “scene,” and has decided to take a break from the competitive circuit for the time being. “It’s hard not to feel like I’m stepping into a human cockfight, and I just can’t get my head around being looked at as a piece of meat beating on another piece of meat,” he says. “I know some people view it that way, but these are real people, with everyday jobs that just happen to find what they need in this combat sport.” Campbell jokes that he got “freaked out” before his last fight after discovering that his mom was in the crowd, but the MMA is clearly at odds with his personal philosophy. “I try and keep life as quiet and peaceful as possible; I don’t really want to be affiliated with the cages and the blood and guts.”

His dislike of the MMA scene aside, he respects the sheer athleticism the sport demands. A native Calgarian and high-level hockey player who’d had his sights set on going pro before blowing out his knee, Campbell echoes Gallant’s and Hunter’s perspectives on mixed martial arts training. “I train NHL players and, yes, they work hard, but I would argue that training for an MMA fight is the most gruelling thing a person can do because, scientifically, the time frames of a fight don’t make any sense in terms of what we are demanding from the body.” He explains that humans have three different phases of energy output: one is 10-second bursts of explosive power useful for physical activities like powerlifting; the second sustains activity for about 90 seconds (an 800-metre sprint, for example); for any activity over three minutes a third phase kicks in, and the body shifts from the anaerobic to the aerobic energy system.

That’s why the endurance of MMA fighters is so astonishing. The sport requires bursts of crazy intensity that must be sustained for periods much longer than what the body should be able to withstand. “These fighters go full out for a five-minute round, recover for 60 seconds and repeat that cycle three times,” explains Campbell. “That’s essentially 15 minutes during which everything you do you have to work anaerobically depending on the other man’s pace.” Conditioning determines whether you win or lose a fight. No matter how much skill you have or how hard you can hit, if you only have 20 seconds of energy left in your tank and your opponent has 30, he is going to beat you.

If Gallant, Hunter and Campbell are any indication, those competing in mixed martial arts in Calgary do so because they are genuinely passionate about and dedicated to the sport, not because they are looking for a major payout. Walking into an arena to take in a night of fights and surveying the crowd, you may have a hard time believing that this scene is more about mastering a discipline and pushing the human body to its full potential than it is about beer and bloodshed. Frankly, for some people, it’s not. But for these three, and undoubtedly many other fighters out there, MMA has played an integral role in shaping who they are. “In the end, I want to be able to give back to this sport what it has given me,” says Hunter. “It’s grounded me a lot and given me the ability to set goals for myself and work towards things, where as I didn’t necessarily have that in the past.”

No one is saying that the UFC, or even MMA, is going to change the world, but it has changed the worlds of some. And the sport itself certainly demands more respect than the stereotype of this subculture would have us believe. If you can get past the facade of the televised version and see the humble, respectful spirit and self-discipline that are at the core of mixed martial arts, you may just find your disapproving headshake turning into a subtle fist pump.

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